Apollo Bay Sailing Club
Tell Tales
10th December 2016
You don’t always need perfect conditions to have a fun sail and on Saturday it looked like everyone was having a great time out there.
A predicted S Westerly of 13- 15 knts was pretty accurate for strength and several wind readings during the day confirmed it. The direction was another matter and at one point half way through was reading SSE and making for some interesting reaches.
The briefing was a clinical/text book affair by Bourney and Anton, with sailors being warned that the individual recall flag (for any boat that broke the start) would be close to hand and used with impunity.
Out on the water, and with 5 seconds till the hooter, Boheme (luckily with no boat below her) was trying her hardest to let off and not get pinned with a recall. With heart stopping precision somehow she managed to just stay off the line. Ten plus One, up at the start boat end, hit it within seconds, at speed, with Argonaut hot on her tail. The race was on!
Five minutes later the dinghy start was the obvious place to watch for an infringement. And with the “start nazis” eying the line Aziff did not disappoint. Out came the individual recall flag and she had to restart her race. Windswept almost suffered the same fate but managed to just keep her nose clean.
The keel boats were, as usual, fantastic to watch and the tussle between Argonaut and Boheme kept the duty boat transfixed all day. Quickmatch along with a couple of the dinghies sailed into a slight wind drop and a bit of tide (colloquially known as “the Marriner vortex”) and for a few minutes struggled to round the top mark. Aziff gained back the ground she had lost at the start and managed to hold off Windy for the rest of the race, it ended up a duel of spinnakers.
Of the keelies, after a couple of lead changes it was Boheme’s day. WildRose had some great legs but a mistake with the spinnaker at the gybe mark cost her dearly.
Another good bit of viewing was the small margin between Community Bank (Crock,Jonathon) and Trading Post (Kariljn,Stephan). Wal (Jade, Andrew) sailed a nice race and sailed better than the results reflected. Champagne Jam literally skimmed around the course and Interlude was impressive again this week, Bruce and Laurie working those new sails, goose winging to sail dead downwind.
It’s never easy to miss out on a sail but with all the great racing going on at least it was excellent viewing!
Heat 6 Waterfront Motor Inn Pre Xmas Series
Heat 6 ‘Rex & Mandy Brown’ & ‘Café 153’ Club Championships
Handicap1st Interlude 2nd Champagne Jam 3rd Boheme |
Yard Stick1st Aziff 2nd Champagne Jam 3rd Windswept |
Thanks to our sponsors
Apollo Bay & District Community Bank, Great Ocean Road Trading Post, Waterfront Motor Inn, Café 153, The Fishing Co op, Surf-n-Fish, J&C Marriner Earthworks
Life is short, come sailing with us.
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